


a break in time

by speirs (orphan_account)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-29
Updated: 2013-05-29
Packaged: 2017-12-13 09:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/822596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/speirs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the world ends, Harry finds Louis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a break in time

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who prefer Livejournal: http://erintastic.livejournal.com/1735.html :)

The world ends on a Thursday at 11:49 AM.  
  
Harry is listening to music in a van on the way to a solo interview. John Mayer is singing, the heater is blowing, and Harry is feeling better than he's been in a long time. He leans his head on the cool window and looks out at the city of New York.  
  
The sky is grey and cloudy, vast and full of pollution. In the distance, he can almost make out the outlines of buildings and skyscrapers in darker shades of grey than the sky.  
  
The sides of the road are covered with blankets of white and black snow, and between the lines of countless cars in traffic, he spots a man in an orange vest with a shovel pushing the piles of dirty snow away from the street.  
  
A car moves up a little, just enough to block Harry's view of the road worker. Inside, he sees a big woman with a phone between her head and shoulder, laughing with her mouth wide open. She begins to turn her head to look out her window, but before she can make eye contact with him, Harry shifts his gaze to somewhere else, the traffic light. It's stuck on glaring red, a complete contrast to the neutral colors of the rest of the scenery.  
  
He checks his phone to see the time, ignoring the long list of notifications from social networks. 11:43, it reads. He turns his phone off and then closes his eyes, quickly falling asleep.  


  
  
Eleven minutes later, Harry wakes up. Now, Frank Sinatra is playing and it's 11:54. He pulls out his earphones and rubs his eyes. Something feels different.  
  
"Allen," he calls out to the driver. "Are we there yet?"  
  
He waits for a response that never comes.  
  
"Allen? Paul?"  
  
He slides up on his seat to find no one in the driver's seat. Panic hits him and he shoots his head up at the road.  
  
The sky is still grey and cloudy, and the traffic light is still on red. The same cars are in the lanes around him.  
  
He looks to the car beside him, but the laughing woman isn't there anymore. He strains his neck to look past the car and sees an abandoned shovel laying in the snow and nobody near it. The sidewalks are empty, the car behind him is empty—and that's when Harry realizes he's alone.

  
  
  
After a good thirty minutes of frantically looking around, he leaves the van and maneuvers through the lines of vehicles, peering into windows with hope for any other humans. (There aren't any.)  
  
"Hello?" he shouts. "Is anyone here?"  
  
No one responds. Harry pulls out his phone, hands shaking, and dials the first person in his call history, his mother. He presses the phone to his ear and listens carefully. The rings seem to go on with no end, so he hangs up and calls again. And again, and again, and again.  
  
When his mother doesn't answer at all, he calls Louis. He doesn't answer either. The notifications which used to constantly be updating had gone silent. The city that never sleeps had gone silent. Harry doesn't believe it.  
  
He continues to walk between the vacant cars, some with their engines still running, while calling everyone in his contacts. He feels numb. By the time he runs out of people to call, it's 12:50 and his phone is almost dead. Harry sits down by the curb under a large maple tree and puts his face in his hands, his mind buzzing.  
  
He wonders if this is the apocalypse, that everyone had been raptured and he was one of the few left behind. Or maybe this is just a big prank. Harry's a celebrity, and people pull pranks on celebrities. Maybe this is a dream. He ends up with the conclusion that whatever this is, there has to be at least one more person on Earth other than himself. He can't be the only one. So he stands up and keeps walking.

  
  
  
A couple of miles down the road, Harry finds another set of footprints in the snow. His hope surges and he quickly follows the tracks. A long hour passes, but he still doesn't find an end to the footprints. Then he notices a maple tree ahead of him and recognizes it almost immediately. He had been sitting under it some time ago. He was walking in circles.  
  
Harry kicks the snow and curses as loud as he can, not caring about his vocal chords ripping or whatever he used to care about. His eyes burn with tears and he feels overwhelmed with loneliness and exhaustion. He lets himself cry because there's no reason to hide his tears; there's no paparazzi to take pictures of him to put on covers of tabloids under exaggerated titles. Harry sits on the side of the road with his head buried under his arms until the sky goes dark and the air gets frigid. When that happens, he searches for some place warmer.

  
  
  
He ends up staying in an open convenience store. It isn't that much warmer, but it protects him from the wind and snow that had begun to fall. He takes a can of soda and bags of potato chips off the shelves and settles in a chair behind the cash register that has its drawer open. Harry stares at the money inside, thinking about how useless the green sheets of paper are now when only a day ago, they were the main priority of the world.  
  
He eats slowly, watching the flurries of snow hit the glass of the store and the ground. The fluorescent lights of the convenience store make the night outside look darker than it actually is. Then, Harry begins to feel scared. Not scared of the thought of being alone, but of thought that he might  _not_ be alone.  
  
He looks out at the darkness, fear creeping up his body. What if someone or something dangerous is out there? He doesn't have bodyguards or security anymore. No one could protect him but himself. Harry bites his lip and stares out the window with wide eyes, unable to look away, when suddenly, something moves.  
  
Alarm shoots through him and he squints. His eyes aren't failing him. A dark figure is moving on the other side of the road.  
  
Harry's first instinct is to hide under the counter. He curls up in the cramped space and holds his breath, listening and waiting for something to happen. His heart thuds against his chest, and blood pumps loudly in his ears.  
  
Minutes feel like hours and Harry is about to check if the dark figure's gone when the chimes of the door sound. Steady, shuffling footsteps pass into the store, then stop after the door closes, muffling the sounds of wind.  
  
"Hello?" says a voice.  
  
Harry's heart almost stops. This voice is familiar, too familiar, it can't be—  
  
"Louis?"  
  
Harry gets up from under the counter.  
  
"Louis, is that you?"  
  
And sure enough, Louis Tomlinson is standing across the shop. A smile breaks out on his face.  
  
"Harry!"  
  
He runs to him.  
  
"What are you doing here? What's going on?"  
  
"I don't know," says Harry. "What about you? How did you get here?"  
  
Louis shrugs.  
  
"I woke up late this morning and called room service for breakfast. They didn't come for hours, so I got out of our room to see what's up and nobody was there. Nobody was outside of the hotel either. I tried to look for people, but I just got lost and now, here I am."  
  
Harry smiles in relief.  
  
"I thought I was alone."  
  
"You're not."  
  
Louis claps him on the back and walks past him to grab a Snickers bar off a shelf and sits on the chair where Harry was previously sitting in.  
  
"Let's stay in here for the night. Tomorrow we can look for more people if you want."  
  
"Yeah, okay," Harry says then pushes Louis. "Now get off my chair."  
  
Louis laughs and pushes back. They fall asleep in the comfort of each other hours later.  
  


  
The next morning, they find a backpack in the corner of the store and fill it with water bottles, foods with the longest expiration dates, a flashlight, batteries, and a pocket knife (because Louis thought it was neat). They leave the store at around 9:30 AM.  
  
They first start out determined to find another human being but end up doing more talking than searching. They talk about the X-Factor days, their lives before they met each other, after they met each other, old inside jokes... And somewhere in the conversation, when they're walking in the middle of the Skyscraper Alley of Sixth Avenue, Harry realizes how glad he is to have Louis by his side because if it were anybody else, he wouldn't nearly be as happy. He turns his head to watch Louis as he talks, smiling slightly with bright eyes, and thinks that if they really were the last people on Earth, he wouldn't mind.  


  
  
At 12:19 PM, they sit down for lunch on a bench overlooking the broken pier by the Hudson River Greenway. At 12:21 PM, Harry's phone dies.  
  
"Piece of shit," he says and throws it on the ground.  
  
"What's the big deal?" Louis asks.  
  
Harry kicks it.  
  
"Well now we won't know the time."  
  
"Yes we will. There are clocks all over the place." Louis takes a gulp of his water. "And besides, we don't need time."  
  
Their eyes meet and all of a sudden, Harry feels self-conscious.  
  
"Yeah," he says quickly and averts his gaze to the jagged sticks pointing out of the river, the remains of a pier.  
  
They finish their lunch in silence.  


  
  
After they leave the river, they come across a deserted ice rink. Harry enters the building first.  
  
"I don't think there's anyone in here," he says, poking his head into the rink. "Come in, Louis."  
  
He turns around. Louis isn't behind him.  
  
"Louis?"  
  
He looks around.  
  
"Louis, where are yo— _fuck!"_  
  
Louis jumps out of nowhere and tackles him, bringing them both down to the ice. His body aches and it's cold, but Louis's arms are warm pressed against his side. Harry wants to be angry, but he can't with Louis laughing next to his ear.  
  
"That was great," Louis cries, still laughing.  
  
"Shut up," Harry says before grabbing a handful of ice shavings and chucking it at Louis. He laughs even more.  
  
"Are you sure you want to start this with me?"  
  
Harry throws some more, then pushes the older boy's body off of him to run away. Louis tries to follow but slips on the ice, and Harry laughs while attacking him some more.  
  
They leave the rink when the moon is out and they both feel frozen and numb.  
  


  
"I haven't had that much fun in forever," Louis admits when they're outside. "Let's do that again tomorrow."  
  
Harry smiles to himself.  
  
"What happened to trying to find people?"  
  
Louis doesn't say anything for a while, looking down at his feet.  
  
"Do you even want to do that anymore?" he asks and brings his head up to look at Harry.  
  
"Not really," he replies. "I think we're fine with just the two of us."  
  
Louis grins, and they continue to walk down the moonlit streets. Their shoulders bump into each other every now and then, and if they somehow end up with their fingers interlocked, they don't say anything about it.  
  
Soon, Harry spots a small inn and they sleep there for the night.  


  
  
Louis wakes Harry up early the next day and takes him to a vacant Whole Foods market. They start an intense food fight, riding shopping carts and flinging onions at each other. When they get tired, they eat Boars Head sandwiches outside.  
  
For the rest of the day, they travel around New York doing things they never could have done before, like spray painting all over museums and breaking into random homes. More than once, Harry catches Louis staring at him, and the warm feeling in his stomach grows.  


  
  
In some way, they find their old Four Seasons hotel, the hotel that they had stayed in with Zayn, Liam, and Niall before everyone had abruptly vanished (which seemed like such a long time ago). They go into their room on the top floor and lay down on the beds immediately, feeling worn out. The window to the balcony is open, and the chilly breeze is refreshing against their bodies. They relax for minutes, watching the winter sun fall under the horizon, leaving streaks of orange and gold painted across the indigo sky. Louis breaks the silence.  
  
"Harry," he says softly. The wind dies down a bit. "I think we should talk about this."  
  
"What?"  
  
Harry looks away from the window to see the other gazing at the sun, his eyes reflecting the colors of the sky.  
  
"About us."  
  
"What about us?" Harry asks. He feels his heart racing.  
  
Then, Louis sits up.  
  
"You know what I'm talking about," he says. "Those looks you've been giving me, that time we held hands, all the fun we've been having together, I—do you like me?"  
  
Louis's stare is piercing and for a moment, Harry forgets how to breathe. The sound of wind seems to have stopped completely, as if it were holding its breath. Harry closes his eyes.  
  
"Yes," he says. His voice is quiet and shaky and he's afraid of what might happen next.  
  
Then, a warm hand gently brushes against Harry's, and when he opens his eyes, he sees Louis smiling fondly at him. He gives Harry's hand a light squeeze.  
  
"I hoped so," Louis says and leans over to press his lips against the other's.  
  
Harry is surprised for a second, but then kisses back and curls his free hand in Louis's hair. When they part, Harry is breathless and he can't stop grinning.  
  
"Finally," he whispers and Louis presses their foreheads together before kissing him again.  
  
They fall asleep when the stars come out, their legs tangled with each other's under the bed sheets.  


  
  
Harry wakes up to the sound of a car honking.  
  
He blinks his eyes open and scratches his cheek. Light is pouring in through the window. He's about to get up and wash his face when he notices Louis sleeping soundly next to him. Then he remembers last night and feels his cheeks turn red. He hesitantly moves his hand to touch the older boy's hair, but then a car horn honks again. Harry frowns. He slides off of the bed and goes toward the open window.  
  
Outside, cars are lined up in traffic, some honking at each other. The sidewalks are filled with people, rushing to go places. There are bicycles moving and birds chirping. Restaurants are open and airplanes are flying above the clouds.  
  
Harry feels his head go dizzy and turns away from the window, running straight to the bed.  
  
"Louis." He shakes the other's shoulder. "Louis, get up."  
  
Louis groans and finally cracks an eye open.  
  
"What do you—oh, hi Harry."  
  
He grins cheekily.  
  
"Get back in bed, I'm tired and—"  
  
"No, listen," Harry says and points a finger to the window.  
  
Louis goes quiet and hears the sounds of cars passing and people talking. His eyes widen and he gently pushes Harry out of the way to look out the window.  
  
"What the hell?" he turns to Harry. Harry doesn't know what to say.  
  
Suddenly, there's pounding on the door.  
  
"Guys!"  
  
It's Niall's voice.  
  
"Time to get up! We need to leave the hotel by nine-thirty!" he yells.  
  
Harry and Louis stare at each other.  
  
"What...I thought."  
  
Louis stops in the middle of his sentence. He looks lost.  
  
"Was that," Harry pauses, "was that a dream?"  
  
A siren blares in the distance.  
  
"No," Louis replies. "Definitely not."  
  
It gets quiet and they don't speak for a long time, listening to the world moving. Niall knocks on the door again.  
  
"Are you guys up?"  
  
"Yeah," Harry shouts. "We're coming."  
  
When Niall's footsteps move away from the door, Harry takes a step closer to Louis.  
  
"I have no idea what just happened," he whispers, "but don't forget these past three days, okay?"  
  
Harry swallows.  
  
"Let's stay together, okay?"  
  
Louis hesitates before nodding.  
  
"Yeah," he breathes. "Okay."  
  
He leans in for a kiss, and then the door-pounding returns.  
  
"What are you guys doing? You have less than ten minutes to have breakfast, get packed up, an—"  
  
The door swings open and Niall stumbles backwards.  
  
"We got it! Calm down," Louis says, walking out of their room. Harry follows on his heels.  
  
"It's good to see you, Niall," he winks at him and moves to be on Louis's side. Niall watches as Louis drapes his arm around Harry's shoulders while walking down the hall to the elevator. He shakes his head and goes back to his room.  


  
  
Years later, when scientists find a strange break in time, Harry and Louis don't say anything.


End file.
